"Save me!" the omnispider screamed five days later.

Shen opened his eyes and looked in her direction. The talent was just close enough that he could see she was surrounded by dozens of worms. Hundreds of light strings had grabbed her legs and body.

This wasn't the first time she asked for help. The cultivator had barely saved her the first time, and she had started staying close to him whenever he moved. That had worked wonders, but she had grown impatient after a while.

This was the second time she had bitten more than she could chew.

In fact, she might actually die this time.

Shen's cultivation method was in a constant loop of feedback and improvement. His body and soul constantly changed to adapt to his Path's Image. Almost always, stopping midway through was no issue, but there were critical moments when it was—like right now.

His body and soul were halfway through a substantial change, and his mind partly existed in his soul. He found himself in a unique state where his mind should work slightly differently, but he kept his previous thoughts and goals by focusing on them with everything he had and fueling them with qi. If he stopped now, midway through becoming what he envisioned, his soul would become something he hadn't planned for. That might cripple or kill him—or worse, change his mind without him noticing.

Simply moving now might be enough to make him lose focus, so he would not do that.

Being restricted like that was only slightly dangerous for him. He had run some experiments before, and the E-ranks in that rift couldn't hurt him at all. That included the omnispider.

"Three seconds," Shen said. That was as fast as he could do, and only because he would revert his latest changes instead of moving on.

By all accounts, the spider shouldn't be able to survive three seconds. But she could still speak to ask him to save her, so she could also ask for "help," losing all her points but instantly teleporting away to safety.

The E-rank had only gained points thanks to him; therefore, Shen didn't feel guilty.

The worms were spending mana like crazy as their mana touched the spider's soul. However, they had a weird approach to the light element that soon decreased their expenditure and strengthened their shackles. Gravity could bend light, and they used that flimsy connection to reverse the laws of physics and produce gravity through light. It made no sense to Shen.

The faster their light traveled, the greater the effect became. Instants later, the light rings around the spider's legs no longer touched her. Instead, they hovered a few inches away, still moving, producing strong gravity that locked the talent in place.

The omnispider tried to use her Wind-based Concept to escape, but multiple worms attacked her mana with theirs, forcing her into a losing willpower battle. She tried again a few times before being utterly convinced of her inferiority.

"Save me now!" she demanded furiously.

Shen didn't reply.

One second after he asked for three, light strings coiled into a spike that rotated quickly. Seven worms had to work together to produce each spike, and the few dozen managed to build five.

Shen continued reverting the changes he had made on himself.

Two seconds in, each light spike was surrounded by rotating gravity, also in the form of a spike. Each gravity spike was as thick as Shen's arm was long. The worms immediately pushed the construct into the spider's body.

The omnispider didn't scream in pain. Shen had found she couldn't feel pain at all. However, some other neural feedback told her she was being damaged and on her way to an early tomb.

She screeched in sheer terror.

Then, mana filled the sound waves she released and turned them into a mana-disrupting frequency strengthened by a new Concept that Shen hadn't felt her use before. All light strings disappeared without leaving even a trace behind. Without the light mana, the gravity constructs also faded. Even the worms became dazed as their internal mana was affected.

The omnispider started stabbing them all to death with her pointy legs.

Shen was a first-class talent who had risen to the occasion a few times. But from the outside, it looked absurd. The spider had only used a Concept based on Wind before but now simply touched a Vibration-based one and immediately developed an ability that perfectly countered her enemies.

The cultivator wasn't surprised by the new Concept being from the Laws of Vibration because spiders—at least normal ones—paid attention to vibrations in their webs. This omnispider hadn't produced a single thread of silk until now, but he guessed it had to do with her being blocked from phase space. Or maybe the lack of trees, which she had mentioned earlier.

As for the technique itself, the drow, a B-rank race, knew something similar. The spider had an A-rank guardian. It likely had seen the ability being used before, maybe even been taught how it worked, and now had simply skipped all required practice to use it—as a talent could sometimes do. It was just like how the Feng Clan's techniques that Shen had memorized had been the basis for all his similar leaps.

As constantly repeated, talents really flourished in life-threatening situations.

"Protect me," she said with a weak voice. "Feeling sleepy."

Shen approached and sat right next to her. He guessed it was past time for introductions. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Sapphire," she replied. "Like my mother."

Her name was surprisingly normal-sounding, and the bit about her mother was touching. Omnispiders were aliens but might share some emotions with humans.

"I'm Shen. Go ahead and sleep. I'll protect you."

"Wake me in half an hour," she requested.

Then, all tension left her body, and she immediately fell asleep.

Shen went back to cultivating.

= - = - =

Shen found increasingly more complex challenges the closer his cultivation got to completion. His soul and qi could be easily put in the "same frequency" as his Image. However, his body required finer tuning.

Making his cells vibrate according to his vision wasn't hard. Even changing his biology here and there was feasible. But after some point, he needed to make his body change its most fundamental conception.

At its heart, his Path was an idea, an idealized amalgamation of different Concepts. It didn't physically exist, although he used it to affect the world. His qi and soul were ethereal enough that he could bridge that gap and change them with little effort, but not his body.

Shen was carbon, flesh, bones, body. His Path was Concepts, agreements between Laws. They were too different, too far apart.

The only way forward he found was by analyzing how every Law of Reality affected him. At first, he had barely wasted minutes to find the connection between his material existence and his Path's Concepts. However, he had long exhausted all such links. Now, he had to find connections to Concepts he couldn't feel at all. When he found them, he only felt he was connected to something subtle he couldn't identify at all.

Locating such connections let him glimpse the unique ways those Laws affected him. Almost always, he learned new ways his own Path could affect his body without him stopping being human or a living being. Unfortunately, finding the next connection became tougher every time he accomplished it.

He estimated that he would need at least two extra months to reach Qi Saturation. Maybe more.

Unfortunately, Shen had already stayed in that rift for an entire month and would be surprised if he remained there for another week. The worms were dying quickly, and sometimes, Sapphire took half an hour to find new ones, evidencing they were also growing sparser.

The spider had refused to kill worms more slowly when he asked. In fact, she refused to talk to Shen except to ask him to protect her, as if offended by him not previously assisting her in time.

Sapphire's rift-depopulation speed was only limited by how tiring using her anti-mana technique was. She had to sleep for anything from half a day to two days whenever she used it.

That wasn't out of being weak-willed—though he bet willpower wasn't her strong suit—but that her technique sucked. Shen had been wrong when he assumed she might've been taught it. He was sure there was no way someone would teach her something that bad. She had likely only seen it done, knew Vibration could counter mana somehow, and used her willpower to compensate for the knowledge gap.

Shen had even offered to give her lessons on anti-mana frequencies in exchange for killing worms slower. It was the only time she tensed up, hesitating on whether to talk to him. In the end, she didn't.

The days passed.

= - = - =

Shen only had to save Sapphire a few times every week or so. Other than that, he only protected her in her sleep. He spent the rest of his time cultivating.

One day, Shen suddenly became ecstatic. He had just figured out how to find the subtle connections between him and unknown Concepts more easily! It would only take him half an hour at most for each link!

A few days later, he was back to normal. He often found a new link, only to realize it couldn't help him. Another connection had already previously taught him whatever he could learn from it. The more he knew, the rarer it became to find anything new.

Forget two months; he might need two years to finish.

Fortunately, there were way more dwellers in that rift than he had expected. They also started banding together. Despite Sapphire killing more worms at once, she was forced to sleep much more frequently, considerably slowing her slaughter.

They were yet to leave the rift two weeks after Shen's previous estimate.

That's when Shen finally lucked out. He found such a deep and unique connection to a Concept that it pushed his cultivation by leaps and bounds. He was sure it had to do with the Laws of Life, which should be some of the closest to his biological existence.

That link provided him with novel insights on what to do and let him review and correct multiple changes he had already made.

Shen hadn't been wrong in his previous changes—or he might've crippled himself—but they were ineffective. It was as if he had created roads with countless needless curves instead of a lane going straight to Qi Saturation. Sometimes, the road even went backward before continuing on. He could still reach the end, but it would take much more effort. That was part of the reason for his struggles.

Shen progressed ridiculously faster after that, and one week later, he felt ready to take the final step.

One more cultivation session, and he would reach the peak of the Fate Origin realm.

That's also when he was forced to stop, for it was the most fundamental change of all. By completing the shift of his existence into his Image, everything he had done would become a new whole. It would click together, and everything he was, everything—body, soul, qi, mind, Path—would metamorphose into a new self.

That process would be similar to destroying himself and building something anew. Though he wouldn't physically disintegrate, Shen would become absolutely vulnerable throughout. Even a random G-rank might kill him if they found him like that.

He considered saying "forfeit" or "help" to go to a safe place, but he wasn't sure if he would be safe for long enough, whenever it was.

No, he needed Liya for this.

She might not be ready to talk to him, but he had kept his feelings aside for her Path. Liya would do the same for him.

Shen had to believe it.